Minority Models Take Center Stage

CAN THEY STAY FOR AWHILE, THO?

In one of the best “fashion” films I’ve seen in years, Models.com and Kloss Films swooped in with a nearly 8-minute long video highlighting some of today’s brightest stars in the modeling industry. Many of them are minorities, the majority of their stories emotionally raw and moving. Up on a rooftop, the likes of Torraine Futurum and Maria Borges reveal parts of themselves that so easily get lost in the work they help create.

Duckie Thot and Alton Mason steal the show in their own respective way. Duckie’s retelling of finding her special needs sister unconscious and presumed dead on the floor is absolutely heartbreaking. Her stunning face masks pain better than it should. Alton shows up and shows out with a spoken word piece. It’s beyond impressive considering he’s just a teenager. He talks about how superficial (almost ironic considering he’s a young male model) and selfish we can be.

For almost a decade, I have bounced in and out of the fashion industry. I’ve always remained an outsider who gets to come to the event but is never seated at a premium table. There are tons of people in the industry just like me but our stories haven’t been told (I’m working on that, by the way, so stay tuned). As industry members or consumers, we still aren’t shown the truth, especially from a minority person’s perspective, that we should be getting. Does every message crafted have to be this emotional or thought-provoking? Absolutely not but this video serves as a nice reminder that there are voices that belong to underrepresented human beings aching to be heard. They have lived, they have stories to tell and have no interest in keeping quiet.

In an industry which is still so cold, dismissive and exclusive, this ‘open mic’ video is welcomed with open arms. I want more, goddamn it.